Criterion 1

The standards connected to this lesson include both Social Studies and Language Arts:
SS.K.A.2.1: Compare children and families of today with those in the past.
SS.K.A.2.2: Recognize the importance of celebrations and national holidays as a way of
remembering and honoring people, events, and our nations ethnic heritage.
SS.K.A.2.4: Listen to and retell stories about people in the past who have shown character ideals
and principles including honesty, courage, and responsibility.
LAFS.K.L.3.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read
to, and responding to texts.
LAFS:K.RI.4.10: Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
LAFS.K.W.1.3: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single even or
several loosely linked events, tell about the events, in the order in which they occurred, and
provide a reaction to what happened.
LAFS.K.W.1.2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/
explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information
about the topic.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to describe the differences and similarities of modern
day Thanksgiving and the First Thanksgiving.
This particular subject is important as it fulfills many grade level standards and goals while
building a foundational knowledge of our nations history. Students are also learning about

holidays as they take place throughout the school year which gives them a very real connection
to the content.
The first day I included an interactive read aloud and the second day I added a song with
movements to assist students understanding and memory. The interactive read aloud goes
through a book, my students would read out a particular repeating phrase and do a motion with
it. I then asked questions at predetermined points in the book in order to assess student
comprehension. The musical technique was implemented by teaching children a repeating
melody with differing words, we repeated each verse approximately three times before singing
the song from the beginning. Students also learned motions with the song, these motions and
the lyrics to the Thanksgiving song were connected to the read aloud I had completed just
prior.
Greene Brabham, Edna; Lynch-Brown, Carol. Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on
vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades. Journal
of Educational Psychology, Vol 94(3), Sep 2002, 465-473

Lawrence, Dorothy Lockhart. "Using music in the classroom." Advanced Brain

Technologies (2001).
During any read aloud the goal is to model and improve student literacy, students must learn to
ask themselves questions while reading and go back to the text for clarification. This type of
read aloud strategy models that specific behavior. Using music and movement increases
student productivity, engagement, and interest. Students are often learning how to utilize their
Logistic and Linguistic Intelligences during school, but utilizing their Musical Intelligence also
reaches a group of children who may often feel left out as it also supports both kinesthetic and
auditory learners.

Criterion 2
For my objectives and standards see the first bullet point. My formative assessment and graph
can be found on pages 9 and 10. Students wrote their answers on sticky notes and drew a
picture with it. I then graphed their answers based on categorical data. The summative
assessment was a Venn diagram pre labeled: The First Thanksgiving, Both, Modern
Thanksgiving.
On the first day I asked students to describe one aspect of Thanksgiving that they take part in.
We had previously read Bear says Thanks, so I wanted to differentiate between how Bear
celebrates Thanksgiving and how students do. Students on another sticky note wrote or draw
what they were thankful for. This was later referenced when we talked about how the pilgrims
were Thankful for food and for the Native Americans help just as we are thankful for many
things. The next day students were required to compare and contrast the First Thanksgiving to
a modern Thanksgiving, so asking students to describe one portion of their Thanksgiving
helped student retrieve relevant information from their own experiences.
During discussion of their Venn diagrams students were able to make connections such as,
during the First Thanksgiving they had to cook over a fire because there wasnt electronics.
Students were able to talk about conflict resolution and gratitude two very important aspects of
Thanksgiving and community building. Some students need more assistance staying on task or
on topic and can answer questions but not in depth, these three students still need to develop
that skill in all areas.
I asked my CT and the Kindergarten Assistant to work with one of these students during the
lessons while I circulated around checking and discussing with the others. These students did

not need to label their drawings, though if they could they did, because they could explain their
thinking to the adult.
Students could label their drawings in their native languages, this could also show similarities
and differences in traditions within the classroom. Students could also give their explanation
orally instead of writing it down. This allows students to focus on the content and not the
pressure to write in their second language in a short amount of time.
Criterion 3
Based on my formative assessment and diagnostic assessment I realized that my students did
not have a foundational knowledge about the origins of our American Thanksgiving. I then
decided to add a song to my lesson on the second day. My class loves singing and often has
difficulty making connections from a read aloud to the content, so adding music to the lesson
was meant to help give students a real connection.
My formative assessment also showed me that students understood how Thanksgiving is
usually a gathering and I used that knowledge to correlate how the Pilgrims and Native
Americans gathered.
All of my assessments required students to draw and use their phonemic awareness to label the
drawing, or write a sentence detailing what is in the drawing. This doesnt require students to
do so in English but they have the option to do so in their first language. Students also have the
opportunity to tell a teacher orally to show their understanding.
Criterion 4
Some students struggle with the concept of time especially the order of historical events. This
could be a lack of knowledge or of context. However I had to point out that the pilgrims did

not have video games and other such things because (a) they had not yet been invented and (b)
there was no electricity. This could also be connected to the fact that they are still in the
concrete operational stage of development and are only beginning to understand abstract
thoughts such as time.
Students understand that the means of travel are different now then in the past. That was one
example that I gave and many students replicated. Students often have difficulty creating
examples of their own, perhaps this is the beginning of the one right answer stigma.
Students enjoyed the song they learned and it was a huge addition to the lesson. This was
evident as student continued to sing it well after the lesson and it reinforces the content
learned.
The largest adjustment I made was finding a song for my students to learn. I found it quickly
and immediately knew my students would enjoy it, also it would communicate the content
much better than a read aloud. Next time, I would talk about each verse and assign a small
group a verse and have them sing it for the class and draw a picture showing that scene. This
would help students dive into the content more. This lesson would also extend another day so
students could finish their drawings and then for the whole group to have a debrief time before
creating a group Venn diagram. Unfortunately only being in my internship two days of the
week prohibited this process and so I had to work within the time constraints of only two days.
Using data as a part of my teaching is essential as formative assessments are meant to form the
lesson, and to ignore the value of their meaning is to devalue student learning. I have found
that students response orally is more indepth and throughful than what they write down, this is

something I want to explore next semester. I have learned that some of the data points to the
needs that certain students have. This is especially evident with my formative assessment as
some were completely off topic and need more assistance following train of thought.
My new wondering is what would an oral assessment look like in a kindergarten classroom?
Would it be graded via a checklist, would students record their thoughts individually or as a
small table group? Would this type of assessment be effective?